Holy crap!

Ok, so we had a thunderstorm last night. I remember listening to the rain and seeing the flashes of lightning as I was falling asleep. It was rather pleasant. Woke up this morning, and everything was wet, and a little drizzly, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. So I headed into work, and almost immediately hit standstill traffic. I figured there must be an accident or something and traffic would thin out once it was cleared. Instead, it took me an hour and a half to drive 1.5 miles from the end of my street to the highway ramp. I never did see specifically what caused *that* backup, but considering what I found on campus, I can guess. The highway wasn't bad until I hit the road into campus, where I spent another 20 mins in traffic because a streetlight was out.

The campus itself was practically a disaster area. Broken tree limbs were everywhere and some of the smaller ornamental trees were down completely. It reminded me of what the campus looked like after Katrina. Apparently, what was just a run-of-the-mill thunderstorm on my side of the city was actually a mega-storm in other areas. A check to the downtown Baton Rouge wind archive shows that sustained winds peaked at 35mph last night, with gusts of almost 70mph. That's consistent with a low-level tropical storm and the gusts almost made hurricane strength.

When I finally got to work there's an email from the University confirming that classes *would* be held today, despite the severe weather damage to campus, but asked professors to be lenient with students who missed class or came in late due to wide-spread flooding and severe traffic issues.

It's pretty horrifying. An apartment complex about halfway between downtown and my place had its roof ripped off, and large numbers of people are out of power. In Mississippi, apparently at least one person was killed by the storm. I'm glad it didn't hit as hard where I am, but I'm still not ready for this to start up yet. Hurricane season isn't until June, dammit!

Daily post

Sleep: 1am to 6:30am

Weather: rainy, 68F, 88% humidity, high 78F

Daily BPAL: SNOW GLASS APPLES

Daily Tarot: Ace of Pentacles, Reversed: Miserliness, greed. A false start. Comfortable material conditions, which may not be to the advantage of the Querent.

MyMiniCity: Increase Population
Increase Transportation
Increase Industry
Increase Security

Reading:
Myths of the Norsemen: from the Eddas and Sagas by H. A. Guerber
Letters by Pliny
The Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman
The European Folktale: Form and Nature by Mark Lüthi
Anathem by Neal Stephenson
Seven for a Secret by Elizabeth Bear
The Sum and Total of Now by Don Robertson

Definitions

writ of certiorari: (n) A writ, issuing from a superior court, upon the complaint of a party that he has not received justice in an inferior court, or cannot have an impartial trial, by which the records of the cause are called up for trial in the superior court.



fleech: (v) 1. To beguile, cajole, coax, wheedle; to entice, wheedle into going, to a place. Also, in good sense: To beseech, entreat.
2. To speak coaxingly or beseechingly; to flatter, fawn.



coup: (v) In Scots and Northern Dialect: 1. To buy, or figuratively to abye, pay for, suffer for.
2. To exchange, barter.
3. To cut, slash.
4. In Heraldry: To cut off clean.
5. To strike; to come to blows, meet in the shock of combat, tilt.
6. To overturn, upset, tilt; to empty out, as from a cart or wheelbarrow by suddenly tilting or the like; to toss off (a pot of liquor).
7. To be overturned or upset; to fall or tumble over; to capsize.



frabbit: (adj) Crabbed; peevish.



hellicat: (adj) In Scots and Northern Dialect: 1. Wild; mischievous; frivolous, foolish.
2. (n) A bad, worthless, or foolish person.



dowie: (adj) In Scots and Northern Dialect: Dull and lonely, melancholy, dreary, dismal.



gentrice: (n) In Scots: 1. Gentle birth, noble descent or rank.
2. Nobility, nobles; also, splendid attire.
3. Gentle or honourable feeling; kindness, generosity, clemency, courtesy.
4. Gentility, good breeding.



fleet: (v) 1. To rest upon the surface of a liquid; to be buoyed up; opposed to sink.
2. hyperbolically to ‘swim’ in blood, tears; to be ‘bathed’ in (happiness, etc.).
3. Of a vessel: To be or get afloat; to sail.
4. To drift or be carried by the current or tide on the surface of the water.
5. Of mists, clouds, spirits, an odour: To float (in air, etc.); to drift.
6. To swim: said of fish, occas. of other animals and men.
7. Of a person: To be afloat (in a vessel); to journey or travel by water; to sail.
8. To move unsteadily, as a floating object; to shift or sway (to and fro, etc.); to fluctuate, waver. Both of material and immaterial things.
9. Of liquid, especially water, a river: To flow.
10. Of a multitude of persons: To ‘stream’.
11. 'to fleet with': To overflow, abound.
12. To overrun, flood, fill abundantly.
13. To dissolve or waste away; to become disintegrated, fall to pieces.
14. Of immaterial things: To fade or vanish, die out. Also with 'away'.
15. To glide away like a stream; to slip away, change position imperceptibly or stealthily; hence in wider sense, to flit, migrate, remove, vanish. Also with 'away'.
16. Of the soul: To pass away from the body; hence said of a dying man.
17. Of time: To pass rapidly and imperceptibly; to slip away.
18. To pass, while away (time).
19. To move swiftly; to flit, fly. Also with 'away'.
20. Nautical: To change the position of, shift (a block, rope, etc.).
21. To take off that which floats upon the surface of a liquid; especially to skim (milk, the cream from milk). Also figuratively.
22. To skim fresh water off the sea, as practised at the mouths of the Rhone, the Nile, etc.



aye: (adv) In Scots: 1. Ever, always, continually; at all times, on all occasions.
2. 'for aye': for ever, to all eternity.
3. 'in aye': for ever.
4. (adj) Eternal.



braw: (adj) In Scots: 1. finely-dressed; splendid, showy.
2. worthy, excellent, capital, fine.



sonsie/sonsy: (adj) In Scots, Irish, and Northern Dialect: 1. Bringing luck or good fortune; lucky, fortunate.
2. Sound, sensible; shrewd.
3. Having a thriving, agreeable, or attractive appearance; plump, buxom, comely and pleasant; comfortable-looking, etc.
4. Of animals: Tractable, manageable.



linn: (n) Scots: 1. A torrent running over rocks; a cascade, waterfall.
2. A pool, especially one into which a cataract falls.
3. A precipice, a ravine with precipitous sides.